Master data refers to classes of information such as products or suppliers that are common to a number of computer systems and applications within a company. The different computer systems can belong to the same company or can belong to different companies, such as vendors or contractors. The master data can be stored in a number of different locations, computer systems, and/or incompatible formats. Master data management (MDM) is a top priority for many organizations as they aim to deliver and leverage trusted business information. Master data is high value information such as customer, supplier, partner, product, materials, and employee data. Master data is critical for addressing business problems and is at the heart of every business transaction, application and decision. An effective MDM strategy can assist organizations in responding quickly and easily to existing and changing business needs. MDM software is used to make sure master data entities are kept consistent and accurate.
MDM relies on clean, duplicate-free data to be an effective business tool. Matching plays an important role in achieving a single view of customers, parts, transactions and almost any type of data. Matching is the process of putting together similar or identical data records in order to either identify or remove duplicates from the data. Matching is often used to link together data records that have some sort of relationship. The strength of matching technology is defined by how powerful the algorithms are to establish the match. There are two common types of matching technology on the market today: deterministic and probabilistic. Deterministic matching is rules-based, where data records are compared using fuzzy algorithms. Probabilistic matching technology performs statistical analysis on the data, and then uses that analysis to weight the match.